An Integrated Proteomic and Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Venom Complexity of the Bullet Ant <i>Paraponera clavata</i>
Samira R. Aili,
Axel Touchard,
Regan Hayward,
Samuel D. Robinson,
Sandy S. Pineda,
Hadrien Lalagüe,
Mrinalini,
Irina Vetter,
Eivind A. B. Undheim,
R. Manjunatha Kini,
Pierre Escoubas,
Matthew P. Padula,
Garry S. A. Myers,
Graham M. Nicholson
Affiliations
Samira R. Aili
School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
Axel Touchard
CNRS, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, INRA, Université de Guyane, Université des Antilles, Campus Agronomique, BP316, CEDEX, 97379 Kourou, France
Regan Hayward
School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
Samuel D. Robinson
Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Sandy S. Pineda
Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia
Hadrien Lalagüe
CNRS, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, INRA, Université de Guyane, Université des Antilles, Campus Agronomique, BP316, CEDEX, 97379 Kourou, France
Mrinalini
Protein Science Laboratory, Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore
Irina Vetter
Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Eivind A. B. Undheim
Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
R. Manjunatha Kini
Protein Science Laboratory, Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore
Pierre Escoubas
Faculty of Science, University of Nice, 06000 Nice, France
Matthew P. Padula
School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
Garry S. A. Myers
School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
Graham M. Nicholson
School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
A critical hurdle in ant venom proteomic investigations is the lack of databases to comprehensively and specifically identify the sequence and function of venom proteins and peptides. To resolve this, we used venom gland transcriptomics to generate a sequence database that was used to assign the tandem mass spectrometry (MS) fragmentation spectra of venom peptides and proteins to specific transcripts. This was performed alongside a shotgun liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis of the venom to confirm that these assigned transcripts were expressed as proteins. Through the combined transcriptomic and proteomic investigation of Paraponera clavata venom, we identified four times the number of proteins previously identified using 2D-PAGE alone. In addition to this, by mining the transcriptomic data, we identified several novel peptide sequences for future pharmacological investigations, some of which conform with inhibitor cysteine knot motifs. These types of peptides have the potential to be developed into pharmaceutical or bioinsecticide peptides.
